SINGING ALONG: Peter Wall figured that Vancouver needed a celebratory song like New York, Chicago (that toddlin’ town) or San Francisco where singer Tony Bennett lost his heart. So, in the gung-ho, property-development manner, he wrote “a love song,” called it Vancouver: City By The Sea, and had operatic tenor Richard Margison perform it at his invitation only Wall Ball. Backed by a full band, four-piece Latin ensemble and eight UBC Opera Ensemble members no less. Companion Aliaksandra Varslavan and mother Olga decorated the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre ballroom and foyer with at least 1,000 candles. As for real old times, past balls saw then-premier Christy Clark and then-mayor Gregor Robertson share Wall’s table. Fellow knife-and-forkers this time included B.C. Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson and wife Barbara Grantham intriguingly seated beside former Robertson chief of staff Mike Magee and his wife and Convergence Strategies partner, Suzanne Hawkes. Although invited repeatedly, newly installed Mayor Kennedy Stewart declined, possibly because of Wall’s initially covert billboard support of electoral rival Hector Bremner. Had Wall penned a campaign song for fifth-place finisher Bremner, it would have been of the swan rather than love, variety.

Operatic tenor Richard Margison sang Vancouver: City By The Sea, a “love song” that developer Peter Wall wrote to debut at his candlelit Wall Ball.Malcolm Parry /
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Wall Ball attendees, actor-TV host Todd Talbot and singer-wife Rebecca, met while performing in the Arts Club production of West Side Story.Malcolm Parry /
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STEADY NOW: Sparing One Wall Centre Tower occupants from queasiness is a technology developed by the city-based Glotman Simpson structural engineering firm. It involves a penthouse-level water reservoir and roof-to-basement pipes that keep the slender 48-floor tower from flexing under wind forces. “The parts of a structure you don’t see are often the most significant,” Glotman Simpson claims. That certainly applies to the firm’s since-much-copied combination of partly tensioned springs and self-aligning cups that would let the Vancouver Convention Centre West’s overhanging glass wall deform safely during earthquakes and then return to position. Unconcealed, though, are company principal Geoffrey Glotman, wife Myriam and the Glotman Simpson cycling team’s large-sum fundraising for pancreatic cancer research.

Geoffrey Glotman safeguards structures with hidden technology and, with wife Myriam, fundraises to do the same for pancreatic cancer patients.Malcolm Parry /
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LIKE IT IS: In The Vancouver Sun Dec. 29, architect-developer-writer Michael Geller reviewed his 2018 real-estate predictions and made fresh ones for 2019. Missing was mention of his own West Vancouver Vinson House project that was completed in July. The scheme entailed moving a heritage home rearward and developing its lower floor and two new adjacent structures to make four residences on the erstwhile single lot. When the market softened and what looked to be sales pitches appeared in a community-newspaper article and in Geller’s emailed seasonal greetings, a colleague suggested that they might make him seem desperate. As smoothly as a showbiz comedian, Geller promptly wisecracked: “I am desperate.”

Architect-developer-columnist Michael Geller wisecracked about seeming urgent to sell units of his Vinson House project in West Vancouver.Malcolm Parry /
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LETTING IT BE: When B.C.’s archaic liquor rules finally permitted hotel-only cocktail bars in 1954, the Hastings-at-McLean Waldorf was among few outside Vancouver’s downtown core. Many such originals either died with their hotels, or changed beyond recognition, but the Waldorf’s Polynesian-themed Tiki Bar soldiers on. Its original decor is largely intact albeit without Edgar Leeteg’s velvet paintings that then-owner Bob Mills acquired during a 1948 Hawaii vacation. Meanwhile, a distinct East-of-Main style has arisen among folk less interested in umbrella-adorned cocktails than in band concerts and the ever-growing annual Eastside Culture Crawl. A recent Tiki Bar relaunch saw the Waldorf jammed with Vegan Night Market attendees. They included Andre Lacke and Shannyn Warren who reflect today’s changing economy by having day jobs in cannabis dispensaries.

X, Y, Z. … : “Generation Z QBs reshaping college football” read a Vancouver Sun headline on Dec. 27. That recognized the continuing influence of Generation X, the cult-classic book that West Vancouver-raised Douglas Coupland began writing 30 years ago. Now, with the alphabet ended, future Generations may have to double up on their identifying letter. Not that Generation ZZ’s hip youngsters, say, might relish comparisons to long-bearded ZZ Top rockers and their 1933 Ford hot-rod. Meanwhile, many of the Generation X book’s margin items remain relevant. Coupland’s McJob term literally entered the language, of course. Even more brutal today is his definition: “Homeowner Envy: Feelings of jealousy generated in the young and the disenfranchised when facing gruesome housing statistics.” And every generation from A to ZZZ might endorse Coupland’s tip to author Oscar Wilde: “Dorian Graying: The unwillingness to gracefully allow one’s body to show signs of aging.”

Douglas Coupland and Malcolm Parry imitated Palm Springs turbines before the former settled there to turn his Generation X concept into a first book.Malcolm Parry /
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CHANGING TIMES: Northwest Marine Drive passersby paid no attention to two cheerful young men innocently toting a high-powered rifle and shotgun at the roadside Jan. 5. No police tactical squad swooped. Nor was anyone surprised by a fellow wearing a dress shirt, tie, tie pin, tailored suit and glossy shoes for a misty-morning visit to Spanish Banks (not Banks). Then again, it was January 5, 1958. More or less anyone then could own and carry firearms. Of those that did, few ever imagined that future young men would use them to publicly murder drug trade rivals whose activities also killed thousands of their own youthful clients.

On January 5, 1958, no one was slightest concerned by Ray Salt and Don Starling openly toting firearms on the shoulder of Northwest Marine Drive.Malcolm Parry /
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